The plane crash at Muan Airport in South Jeolla Province...More than 150 people died.

■ Host: Anchor Jang Won-seok, Anchor Yoon Bori
■ Starring: Kim Da-hyun, Social Affairs Reporter, Professor of Safety Engineering in Hameun-gu District

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News Special] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Muan Airport will be closed until January 5, and we will provide support for those who leave from Muan Airport without any problems, and we will also provide support for those who plan to leave the country in the future. It also said that it has submitted all information related to the aircraft maintenance history to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport regarding the accident. I'll give you more details as soon as I get it organized. Then we will tell you more details with reporter Kim Da-hyun of the Ministry of Social Affairs regarding the news of the accident now. Reporter Kim Da-hyun, let's hear about the number of casualties confirmed so far.

[Reporter]
It is estimated that 176 people have been killed in the accident so far. Among them, 82 were male and 83 were female. There are also 11 people who haven't been confirmed yet. I've kept you updated on the two people who have been rescued so far. Other than these people, we haven't heard anything about additional rescue yet. The two rescued were conscious at the time of their discovery but were injured and taken to hospital. These are believed to be the crew members who were on the tail of the plane.

[Anchor]
The nationality of the passengers on the plane was also confirmed, right?

[Reporter]
That's right. The plane left Bangok, Thailand, and was entering Muan International Airport when the accident happened. The passengers on the plane are identified as 173 South Koreans and two foreigners, Thai nationals, and Thai nationals. In addition, there are 181 passengers, including six crew members.

[Anchor]
Before that, 176 people. There was a mistake in the subtitle earlier about the news that the latest death toll is being confirmed with 176 people. We will correct it and explain once again that 176 people have been confirmed to have died so far. The sun is down now, how is the search going?

[Reporter]
Authorities are continuing the search because there are still missing people. However, the scope of the search is gradually expanding. Rescuers have entered not only the place where there are fragments but also the surrounding grasses, and are searching for several people who have not yet been found. In addition, many passengers are believed to have been found inside the aircraft, and search operations appear to be continuing inside.

[Anchor]
The list of passengers continued to come out earlier, but was the personal information of the dead also confirmed?

[Reporter]
That's right. I keep showing you the accident plane video or pictures, but only the tail is shaped and the rest of the parts are damaged so much that it is difficult to recognize. In particular, the state of damage is significant, with explosions occurring after collisions. Because of the large impact, the damage to the victims' bodies is severe. As a result, we confirmed through a briefing from the fire authorities that it is difficult to check personal information. Authorities say they will be sent to the funeral home after identifying the guardians at a makeshift morgue at the site.

[Anchor]
Since it is an accident that occurred in Jeollanam-do, there are students and faculty members in Jeollanam-do among the passengers.

[Reporter]
That's right. We're continuing to deliver unfortunate news. It is understood that up to five faculty members and three students from Jeollanam-do were on the plane that caused the accident at Muan Airport. Accordingly, the Jeollanam-do Office of Education also established an accident countermeasure headquarters. There are some people who seem to have been on board, so we are working on finding out the status of about 10 people and continuing to support them. Among the news we told you, many of the passengers seem to have traveled to their families for the end of the year. That's why it's becoming more regrettable.

[Anchor]
Shall we reorganize the accident revealed by the Korea Airports Corporation?

[Reporter]
To summarize the accident again, a fire broke out when the plane left the end of the runway while landing at Muan Airport and hit the hard structure of the airport. As a result, the shock was very large, and it was completely destroyed as it became a half-wave. The plane originally attempted the first landing on runway 1 of Muan Airport, but it rose again because it was difficult to land normally. I'm expressing that I'm back on track. In addition, he later attempted a fuselage landing, a type of emergency landing, but the deceleration was not done properly, so he hit the outer wall of the fence at a very high speed.

Why was it so difficult to land normally, there is a lot of attention on this part right now, but the passenger plane in the accident is using a folding landing gear.
So you're using a folding landing gear. However, the reason why this device did not work properly and it did not work is now being investigated by the authorities.

[Anchor]
The Busan Regional Aviation Administration and the fire department are briefing right now. I'll connect to the site and listen to it for a while.

[Anchor]
You saw the situation of the fire department briefing. The bereaved families were briefly caught protesting at the scene. The fire department said it will brief again in about 10 minutes. I will reconnect the fire department briefing in about 10 minutes. The number of accidents and deaths continues to increase. I'm adding related news, but if you listen to the briefing from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, did the airport tell you to watch out for birds at the control center and watch out for bird collisions just before the plane landed?

[Reporter]
That's right. This is the explanation of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which is in charge of aviation safety. I'm continuing to brief you. First, at 8:54 a.m., the control tower gave permission to land, so the airliner attempted the first landing. And then about three minutes later. In the 57th minute, the control tower issued a warning of bird movement. So it must have been to be careful because there are birds. And after that, I went back up again and again, but it seems that it went up again because of the warning of the bird's migration. I can't land properly. There was also a pilot's distress report at 59 minutes. There was a May Day request.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explained that there was a final collision at 9:03 shortly after that, and in fact, the plane should have gone back to the other side, but it seems that the accident occurred while getting permission to the short side urgently. First of all, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has collected all of the flight recorders and voice recorders that can be considered black boxes. If you analyze the black box, I think it will be a little easier to understand the cause of the accident to some extent.

[Anchor]
Could you explain in more detail the investigation of the cause of the accident?

[Reporter]
As the issue is so serious, we are responding by dividing our roles across the government. First of all, the National Fire Agency is in charge of on-site rescue and first aid. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is in charge of investigating the cause of the accident and preventing recurrence. In addition, local governments will share their roles in dealing with accidents, including family support for victims.

[Anchor]
Please refer to the information number related to the upper right while looking at the right and screen. The police also set up an investigation headquarters in connection with this accident.

[Reporter]
That's right. The Jeonnam Police Agency has taken the helm. Today, we set up an investigation headquarters regarding the Muan aircraft accident. First of all, more than 264 investigation headquarters have been organized with Officer Na Won-oh as the head of the headquarters. Police said they will do their best to deal with the accident and quickly identify the dead. In addition, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Air Railroad Accident Investigation Committee will also investigate the cause of the accident with the police. It is inevitable that scientific investigation personnel are needed to confirm the personal information of the dead, so the police said they have provided additional support for 131 overdemand workers and medical examiners.

The police have issued an emergency in the Muan area since the accident occurred today. In addition, an emergency was issued in Hampyeong and Mokpo, where they entered the army. In other words, the police entered the emergency service system and made all-out efforts to put in personnel. You can see it like this.

[Anchor]
We should not only investigate the cause of the accident, but also investigate whether there are any violations at the same time, right?

[Reporter]
This is probably the most anticipated role of the police. It seems inevitable to investigate whether there were any violations. First of all, the accident seems to have occurred while trying to land the fuselage and make an emergency landing, as I said, without the landing gear operating, but many questions are being raised. As you can see in the video, the airport is shocked by the hard structure very strongly after failing to slow down. This raises questions about whether the runway is too short and whether the structure was made of concrete to prevent the impact. In addition to this, many questions have been raised, such as whether it was too urgent to make sufficient preparations by communicating with the airport because it was actually an emergency landing before landing the fuselage. In addition, the police are expected to comprehensively investigate the questions accordingly.

[Anchor]
You came to the professor's studio at the safety airport in Seoul. Professor, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport explains that the accident occurred just two minutes after the pilot made the May Day declaration. How do you analyze whether you were late in recognizing the accident or if you didn't have time to take care of it?

[Hameungu]
If you look at the communication with the control tower now, isn't the main reason that the landing gear failed to develop due to poor landing gear? However, there seems to be a need to check the black box voice recorder now, whether this part has been sufficiently exchanged with the control tower in advance and has been fully aware of the part. Very tight situations. Despite these conditions, which require a wide swivel and landing again in the process of returning, the control tower guided me at first, and I believe that was a very difficult condition for the pilot to judge.

So, this is the part where the landing on runway 9, which was known, was attempted again, not runway 1. I think it's a little different, so in fact, a lot of people have a lot of questions about the so-called landing gear defect caused by bird collisions. So, if you look at the communication with the control tower, you can see the situation at the time with a bird warning at a normal level. Then, I think we should think about this part of the bird collision, not the cause of the bird collision as an indirect cause, but in a way, gas defects in other contexts. In any case, these basic conditions, which basically do not have to turn enough and return, seem to have contributed to the increase in the form of damage.

[Anchor]
As the professor said, the specific cause seems to require time to investigate, but anyway, the pilot tried to land again while trying to land, and it seems like he tried to do something. What do you think the pilot was trying to do now?

[Hameungu]
In general, the order to return has been dropped and the landing gear has not actually been deployed, so of course, you have to try to return and raise the altitude of the plane to a certain altitude to give it what we generally know is turning. So many of you will experience flying, but there are many cases of turning quite a bit even when you arrive near the airport. In fact, depending on the conditions of the runway or various conditions, the turning is not a very special situation, but a general situation.

In any case, even though the pilot's judgment is well aware of the conditions in which the fire and response related organizations need to earn a certain amount of time to make this turn, the fact that the part was not done properly is seen as a situation in which the aircraft situation was not easy.

[Anchor]
Reporter Kim Da-hyun, what's the exact information about the Jeju Air passenger plane that caused this accident?

[Reporter]
Jeju Air flight 2216 is an accident at Muan International Airport. It is a Boeing 737-800 model manufactured by Boeing in the United States. The age is 15 years, but it is understood that it has been operated for 15 years. At today's briefing by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, information on the aircraft's captain and vice-captain was also provided. Both are considered to be Korean nationals. Also, the captain is in his current position, that is, March 2019. It's a 5-year captain and the flight time is more than 6,000 hours. It is believed that the flight was about 6823 hours. In the case of the assistant manager, he has about 1650 hours of flight time and his current position was in February last year.

[Anchor]
Professor, it is said that it has been around 15 years, and you might think that this is old in 15 years, but among airplanes, it can be said that it is the latest model.

[Hameungu]
That's right. If it is an age of about 15 years, it is not classified as an aged tumor. In a way, I just looked at the statistics for a moment, and in the case of American Airlines, it is known that about 800 planes are currently operating as the main model, so it is difficult to say that the 15 year flag is simply the problem of this accident.

[Anchor]
However, the fire authorities said this time that it poured into the airframe after colliding with the fence. We probably wear seat belts before we land. Should I say there was a shock to the point that the seat belt was meaningless?

[Hameungu]
It seems that the physical shock was very severe. It is known that not only the seat belt but also the seat itself is separated, so it seems that a very high amount of impact has been applied.

[Anchor]
Earlier, Jeju Air and Jeju Air, which operate the accident passenger aircraft, also apologized to the public.

[Reporter]
That's right. The representative personally apologized to the public. I did it at 2 p.m. today. A hotel in Seoul issued an apology. Jeju Air said it had no accident history of the passenger plane in the accident, and there were no abnormal signs in the results of regular maintenance. However, CEO Lee expressed his apology, saying that he feels responsible as CEO regardless of the cause of the accident. He said he would make every effort to support the bereaved families.

[Anchor]
There are reports on YTN right now, so please play the reports. Let's look at the situation a little more while watching the video. You are seeing the Jeju Air aircraft that crashed today is making an emergency landing by landing on the fuselage. It is said that Muan Airport in Jeollanam-do is relatively shorter than Gimpo, Gimhae, and Jeju airports, but the government said that it doesn't mean much. However, it doesn't mean much when making a normal landing. I understand that, but can it be considered a sufficient length for a fuselage landing like today?

[Hameungu]
I can tell you that's a different case. As the anchor said, in the case of emergency landing and fuselage landing, if there is no concrete structure called the outer wall like that, the damage will be significantly reduced. So, I don't think it's right to say that it's a sufficient distance for a fuselage landing in a very emergency situation.

Anyway, but now the airport actually meets the standards as an international airport. So, in conclusion, if it was a very long, relatively long structure that could absorb some impact in the form of a barbed wire, of course, it's consequential, but the damage is expected to be significantly reduced.

[Anchor]
And in terms of the aircraft management system, we will investigate various causes of accidents in scenarios now, but it seems that it is not easy to respond. Even when I watched the report video, such a terrible accident occurred in such a short moment. I think we need a prevention-oriented system, what do you think?

[Hameungu]
As you have just said, airlines and related agencies have various preventive measures to prevent them from eventually making a fuselage landing, which is equivalent to such an emergency landing. So, as previously announced by Jeju Air's management, there are enough inspections, checks, and other things that are constantly being done before the start of the flight. However, these are not the parts that can be secured by covering all the variables that can occur now.

So, it is necessary to supplement various preventive aspects from various angles, but I think the part that cannot be deployed right now is a very important momentum in the part of the very fatal Boeing 737 model. So, it seems that this landing gear part and this part should be investigated in more detail and sufficient preventive measures should be established accordingly.

[Anchor]
Reporter Kim Da-hyun, I heard that this accident is similar to the Asiana plane accident that occurred in Haenam 30 years ago, what is it about?

[Reporter]
With this accident, the plane accident that occurred in Haenam more than 30 years ago is also being re-examined. It was an accident that occurred in July 1993. It was an Asiana Boeing plane that was about to land at Mokpo Airport. It was about 10km away from the airport, but it collided with Ungeosan Mountain in Haenam. At that time, 66 people, including flight attendants and passengers, died. It is also remembered as a large-scale disaster in which 44 people were injured. First of all, both accidents have something in common. This accident happened while trying to re-land. First of all, if you look at the Asiana plane accident, that is, Haenam, the weather continued to be so bad that it was difficult to see ahead at the time.

In this situation, two attempts to land failed, and the third attempt to land without returning to Gwangju Airport occurred a massive disaster like this. This time, the Jeju Air passenger plane has a similar aspect, and as I said, it failed once in an attempt to land, and it occurred when it collided with the outer wall like this during the re-landing process. But there is also a difference. It's
weather conditions.

At the time of the Asiana Airlines accident, bad weather conditions seem to have had a great impact on the accident. However, the aviation authorities explain that the Jeju Air accident was in good weather condition at Muan Airport, which was not difficult to land at all. In addition, the two accidents are being prepared in terms of casualties. The plane crashed into the mountain, but in the case of a Haenam accident. More than 40 passengers, nearly half of whom survived.

[Anchor]
One of the sad and regrettable parts of this disaster was that Muan Airport was in the process of extending the runway. However, not only Muan Airport but also other airports in other provinces have as many runways as Muan Airport, but there are opinions that the runway extension project should be expanded to prevent accidents. How do you see it?

[Hameungu]
The extension project seems to be an appropriate type of business. So, the aviation law and the airport law are very minimal standards. So it doesn't mean that getting this right significantly reduces the risk. So, the reality is that we cannot secure sufficient safety in emergency situations like this because it was made with a minimum standard in consideration of economic and operational aspects.

So, reflecting these things in the next step, there is an extension of the runway length and not only the runway, but also the so-called buffer zone. Many airports are properly utilizing these so-called buffer zones, and in the case of Muan Airport, there is a very high possibility that the budget and these parts were not sufficiently reflected at the time of construction. Again, I can tell you that meeting the legal standards is not the best way to reduce the damage of these accidents in the future.

[Anchor]
Then, shall we point out the number of casualties confirmed so far? Reporter Kim Da-hyun.

[Reporter]
The number of casualties identified so far is estimated to have killed 176 people. Among them, 82 were male and 83 were female. There are 11 people who are still checking. Also, I told you about the two rescued people, but we haven't heard any additional rescue news yet.

[Anchor]
Professor, now that the sun has set, I think the rescue work will become more and more difficult.
How do you see it?

[Hameungu]
There are some areas that have been completed, and it seems to be in the process of expanding. It may be in a slightly different context, but if you keep looking at the screen at the time of that accident, it actually collides with the outer wall, and the body itself is not properly protected and is almost completely destroyed. So in the end, there are survivors in the tail, which reflects the least physical quantity. So, in the current situation, there is a condition in which passengers who are separated by such a physical extreme shock can be separated quite far.

So, in the case of automobiles, there are bumpers that can be greatly alleviated when impacted, but in fact, aircraft are weaker in strength than automobiles. Since it has to be lightweight in the form of a kind of reinforced plastic, I can tell you that it has material properties that have little control over these physical impacts, so it can't cope with them.

[Anchor]
Reporter Kim Da-hyun, the sun is down now, and you're still searching, right?

[Reporter]
Since there are still missing people, the fire authorities are continuing the search even when the sun goes down. I also told you that I've expanded the search scope. As the professor said earlier, rescuers are going in and searching the surrounding grass because there may be missing people not only in the area where there are fragments but also in the surrounding areas.

[Anchor]
I see. So far, Ham Eun-ji, a professor of safety engineering at the Eulji University, and Kim Da-hyun, a reporter from the Department of Social Affairs. Thank you both.